The best ~free~ thing you can do when you find a YouTube creator you like is to just bookmark their video page, or put it in an RSS reader, and only use the YouTube home page/algorithm for discovering new channels
Be a little more active. keep checking for new stuff from folks you like
YouTube is great for discovery! I love that part of it ~
But when something catches me, I add that creator's channel to my RSS (I use Feedly) so I can actually see the videos. like, when they come out. and not a page of a jabillion shorts (unless I'm specifically looking for shorts)
I won't claim I know how everyone thinks of YouTube but it's not a single cable channel called "YouTube" that you just put on in the background on autoplay. It certainly _can_ be that, if that's all you're using it for.
But it's a host for content & kind of unique. A historical anomaly.
The "default" way YouTube used to work was fine for creators but YouTube corporate doesn't necessarily want to do it the old default way anymore — sure they made money, "but what about more money?" —they're always going to break things if it makes more money
So the easiest thing to do is to put in just a little bit of extra work on your side -- your browser, your pc -- and keep a big folder of bookmarks or a big folder full of RSS feeds.
Set it up so you can go whole weeks without looking at the YouTube main landing page. if you want to.
short rant because I've seen so many creators this year mention that YouTube is changing the ground rules (again) and they're having a harder time of it.
latest that prompted the thread:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucUD...
The basic proposition of youtube, that they'll host just about anything (within their rules) and hang onto it for _years_ and serve it up at multiple resolutions to just about anybody who has the link, that's an AMAZING thing. and it's free*!
*ad supported.
